TFB and fair use...

Link

Airport Screeners Sue Over New Federal Rules, Saying U.S. Citizenship Requirement Unfair

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The new federal law requiring airport screeners to be U.S. citizens is unconstitutional and discriminatory, a lawsuit filed Thursday charges.

Nine screeners who could lose their jobs sued Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta and John Magaw, the undersecretary of transportation for security, in federal court.

About 20 percent of the nation's 28,000 screeners are not citizens.

The law barring noncitizens also could compromise airport security by eliminating experienced screeners, said Ben Wizner of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, an attorney for the plaintiffs.

Comment was not immediately available from Mineta or Magaw.

"When I learned about this law, I was deeply hurt," said plaintiff Vicente Crisologo, who has worked at San Francisco International Airport for more than two years. He said legislators should remember "their forefathers were once immigrants, too."

Crisologo, a permanent legal resident, came to the United States from the Philippines about three years ago to be closer to his son and two grandchildren. The former pharmaceutical company sales manager won't be eligible to apply for citizenship for another two years.

The citizenship requirements will be felt keenly at San Francisco airport, where about 80 percent of its 800 screeners are not citizens, said Andrew McDonald, spokesman for the Service Employees International Union. At Los Angeles International Airport, an estimated 40 percent of the 1,000 screeners are non-citizens.

-- Anonymous, January 17, 2002